Stored value cards are available to consumers to be used in place of cash. The stored value cards may hold a value that has been prepaid by the user or by others to the issuer. The cards may work within standard widely accepted or targeted networks, such as credit card networks, or may be used in a closed loop environment, for instance by using internal terminals at participating merchant establishments.
Stored value cards offer little flexibility or functionality to users or merchants who accept the cards. Businesses do not gain any benefit from accepting a stored value card and therefore have little incentive to accept such a card as payment.
Additionally, the user gets little benefit from using the stored value card. The major benefit to users is that they do not need to carry cash or own credit cards in order to make purchases.
Additionally, the user may load the card with value and spend money in a first merchant establishment. If the user does not accurately and diligently record the expenditures in the first merchant establishment, the user will not know how much value remains on the card the next time the user attempts to use the card in a second merchant establishment. Assuming that the user has a budget in mind for each merchant establishment, if the user overspends the budget in one merchant establishment, the user will not have enough value to purchase products that the user desires or needs before reaching the second merchant establishment from which the user would purchase additional products. Other problems also exist.